Lukas Reichel Trade Puts Maple Leafs in a Tough Spot With Nick Robertson
Photo credit: Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images
The Toronto Maple Leafs are gonna need to look elsewhere for a potential Nick Robertson replacement as Lukas Reichel has been traded to the Vancouver Canucks.
On Friday afternoon it was announced that the Chicago Blackhawks had traded struggling forward Lukas Reichel to the Vancouver Canucks in exchange for a fourth-round pick:
Coincidentally, the fourth-round pick acquired by Chicago was their own that was acquired in the Ilya Mikheyev trade:
Reichel, 23, has four points in give games this season for the Blackhawks (2 goals, 2 assists) and has 58 points in 174 career games (22 goals, 36 assists) since being drafted 17th overall in 2020.
Vancouver Acquires Young Forward Reichel For Surprisingly Cheap
He has not been able to find his footing in Chicago and there were talks for the past few weeks that the two parties were trying to find a mutual exit from the team, not only for Reichel's future but for the Blackhawks' plans.
The Canucks pick up a very young forward with a lot of upside and the potential to really make a statement in their top-nine, and will add some much needed offense to a team that has struggled to put points on the board.
For the Toronto Maple Leafs, it spells bad news for them given that they themselves are trying to deal their own polarizing forward in Nick Robertson, and if Reichel; a former top-20 pick can only get a fourth, that doesn't bode well.
Nick Kypreos and Justin Bourne Not Hopeful About Robertson Deal After Reichel Trade
Nick Kypreos and Justin Bourne believe that if the Maple Leafs want to get a deal done with Robertson, it's going to happen for a cost much, much lower than they had hoped.
The team has been banking on Robertson breaking out but his inability to score so far this year has led to yet another healthy scratch and more speculation about his future with the team.
There's no way that Robertson has earned the chance to get a fourth, and Reichel made a statement already this year with his 2-goal effort, meanwhile Toronto has gotten the complete opposite results from their prized forward.
The market, already thin, is going to be even harder to work out a move for Robertson, and unless he starts to pic things up and raise his stock, the Maple Leafs might be needing to either deal with his inconsistency, or cut ties altogether.
Unfortunately for Brad Treliving, he is going to have to go off the precedent set by Chicago trade Lukas Reichel in order to get a trade done for Nick Robertson, which makes an already gargantuan task even harder to accomplish.
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